Calls to boycott Amazon as parcels pile up

Should you boycott Amazon for Christmas? In the coming weeks, we will order 41 parcels every second. Not bad for a company that critics say exploits its workers and dodges billions in tax. Who delivers the presents at Christmas? Father Christmas? Not quite. In 2019, the answer is Amazon, the online marketplace, that sells everything from books to smartphones, fancy-dress costumes to packs of live ladybirds. Amazon delivers over five billion packages a year through its Prime membership scheme alone. In the run-up to Christmas, shoppers in the UK will order 41 parcels every second from the e-commerce giant. The company's global dominance has made owner Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world. He earns in one second what the average Amazon warehouse worker makes in five weeks. But Guardian journalist Zoe Williams has called for a total boycottTo withdraw relations from an organisation as a punishment or protest. The word comes from the surname of a Victorian Irish landlord who was subject to a boycott from poor farmers who demanded rent reduction. of Amazon this year, calling out its culture of low pay, worker exploitation and tax avoidance. Employee accounts paint Amazon's fulfilment centres as warehouses of horror, where workers are treated like machines. The delivery giant has patented wristbands that will track employees' movements at all times, and buzz to guide their hands to parcels faster. Workers are typically expected to process a package every nine seconds from 7.30am to 6pm, with many urinating in plastic bottles to avoid being fired on the spot. After an employee collapsed and diedSelf-belief does not always make surgeons successful. In the 19th Century, surgeon Robert Liston performed an amputation with a 300% mortality rate. The patient, his assistant and an onlooker all died. on the warehouse floor, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health placed Amazon on its 2019 Dirty Dozen list of the most dangerous employers in the USA. When it is not being criticised over Dickensian working conditions, Amazon is being called out for aggressive tax dodging. Last year, the company did not pay a single cent of US federal income tax on more than $11 billion in profits. But, for Williams, perhaps the most important reason to boycott Amazon is for Bezos's "scorched-Earth" determination to make the world so dependent on the company that no other retailer can survive. "This would leave everyone, in every country, at any point in the consumer experience supply chain, being treated as badly as the worst-off Amazon worker," writes Williams. Is she right? Should we boycott Amazon this Christmas? World domination? It's unrealistic, say some. Amazon is the fastest, most efficient and convenient option out there. Responsibility doesn't lie with consumers, who are simply making the best choice they can, it lies with a system that rewards companies for squeezing costs as much as possible. Boycott Amazon, and another company will swoop in to undercut them with more hidden, underpaid workers. It's more important to actively support workers' rights and laws that will counter this exploitation. But we must boycott, writes Zoe Williams. Aside from the sickening knowledge that Jeff Bezos is the richest man alive, while one in three Amazon employees in Arizona rely on food stamps to get by, we must fight Amazon's aggressive campaign to take over our lives and monetise our private lives. If we do not spread our money more widely, Amazon will spell the end of competition and our freedom to choose. It will make drones of us. KeywordsBoycott - To withdraw relations from an organisation as a punishment or protest. The word comes from the surname of a Victorian Irish landlord who was subject to a boycott from poor farmers who demanded rent reduction.